Culham
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Culham is a village on the north bank of the River Thames near Abingdon in southern Oxfordshire, England.
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[edit] History
Surviving records from Culham Manor of the late 1500s to the early 1600s, now in the Bodleian Library, show a William Carpenter senior and his son William Carpenter junior, who emigrated to Weymouth, Massachusetts in 1638 and helped found Rehoboth, Massachusetts in 1645. Among the descendants of the Rehoboth Carpenter Family are two US presidents and other notables of American history.
[edit] Notable buildings and structures
The parish church of Saint Paul is largely Victorian, in a 13th century style. The old bridge over the Thames was built in 1416-1422 by the Abingdon Guild of the Holy Trinity.
[edit] Institutions
Near the village is the site of RNAS Culham (HMS Hornbill), a World War II airfield used by the Fleet Air Arm. The airfield now houses the Culham Science Centre, an 800,000 square metre scientific research site and home to two nuclear fusion experiments JET and MAST. The START Nuclear Fusion Experiment was also conducted on the site until MAST succeeded it in 1999. Just outside the village is the European School, Culham.
Culham Institute is an offshoot of the former Culham teacher training college (Culham College). It is a small charitable research organisation associated with the Church of England and housed in the Educational Studies Department of Oxford University. Culham railway station is one of the few surviving station buildings designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel. It is on the Cherwell Valley Line and has recently been restored by Network Rail.
[edit] References
- Lobel, Mary. (1962). A History of the County of Oxfordshire, Victoria County History, vol. 7.
